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Monday, December 28, 2015

a quilt for Penelope

Like many quilters, whenever I find out a good friend is pregnant I immediately start thinking about what kind of quilt to make. Olga sews and makes quilts, too, so I asked if she had a plan for the nursery or any preference for fabrics or patterns. She asked if I would use a collection of fabric that she had called Sweet as Honey, and I knew she liked hexagons after she sent me screenshots of several vintage quilts that were made of teeny tiny hand sewn hexies. I regretfully told Olga that I wasn't up for hand sewing, but that I would try to make something she would like. I sent her a few ideas and one of them was for this triangle star quilt block. Once I got the go ahead from her I started cutting, using my regular rectangular ruler and the 60° line which took a little getting used to, but eventually I got all 250+ triangles cut out. I sewed two rows together and lost steam because the triangles were hurting my brain. My rows kept getting skewed because I wasn't lining the triangles up right so I gave up for a while. They stayed on my design wall for ages, falling down in the humidity of the summer and early fall and getting kicked around by Matt and the boys, ending up in the hallway and wedged in the door jamb. Amazingly, I didn't lose any and finally started sewing again after the baby was born. Penelope didn't mind though, and I finished up at the end of September, if I remember correctly, only a couple months after she was born.
The back is a few Kona blues that I had on hand along with some of the Sweet as Honey fabric that Olga provided me with. I love scrappy backs and this one is no exception. I can't even remember how I quilted it, but I think it's free motion random loops which are very forgiving for a novice free motion quilter like me. The binding is scrappy, too, made from two different fabrics from the Sweet as Honey line. Sometimes it's nice not to have to make a lot of decisions about a quilt, and using one collection definitely simplifies things. Hopefully this quilt will help keep Penelope warm and cozy this winter!

Monday, December 7, 2015

double the plus | a quilt for Bryce

I'm playing catch up once again here on the ol' blog... I made this quilt lickety split in just a couple days to get it done in time for a baby shower I was cohosting. Our good friends Matt and Kayla are expecting their first baby in February and when my instagram friend Emily put out a call for pattern testers I knew it would make a perfect baby quilt for him. The pattern is called Double the Plus and would be great for an experienced beginner! Emily's cutting instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the quilt comes together really quickly, even if you're not hustling like I was! Make sure you check out the #doubletheplus hashtag for more classic examples of the pattern as mine is a bit unorthodox... I've put myself on a fabric diet and went for a very scrappy look with this quilt! In fact, you can only just barely make out the plus signs, but I like the effect. I used a combination of Tokyo Train Ride by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel to make the plus signs and I used various Kona solids for the background.
Since I had a looming deadline I decided not to make the quilt double sided and instead used another Cotton + Steel print, Mesa by Alexia Abegg, for the backing. The binding is more C+S, some scraps of Cookie Book and another print I can't remember the name of for the life of me.
Finn wanted to sit on the quilt in the worst way so once Matt was done taking the couple of pictures I wanted I laid it down on the grass for him. I hope Bryce likes his quilt as much as Finn did! I think he was sad to see it go :)
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